Ripple’s top engineer has put frosty water on one of the XRP community’s most persistent theories – that the company’s 1,700 non-disclosure agreements conceal secret plans for large-scale adoption.

Chief Technology Officer David Schwartz said that NDAs are standard business practice and that claims of massive, undisclosed events are “almost always completely false.” Lack of coordinated government plans. No hidden catalysts. Only routine confidentiality agreements.

What the numbers actually show

This explanation comes at an odd time – right when Ripple is touting the numbers they have XRP community buzz anyway.

The company recently described its platform as the most adaptable treasury platform in the world, pointing out 13,000 connected banks and over $12 trillion in annual payment volume passing through its system.

These numbers are largely due to the 2025 acquisition of Ripple GTSkarbtreasury management company purchased for $1 billion. This agreement brought an already existing network of financial institutions under Ripple’s roof.

The world’s most adaptable treasury platform, trusted by industry leaders around the world.

100% cash visibility. 13,000 connected banks. Payment volume at 12.5 thousand. dollars.

See why → https://t.co/HBFXch1n4m pic.twitter.com/uIqpmz2bHw

— Ripple (@Ripple) April 30, 2026

Seasoned investor Patrick L. Riley put the 13,000 bank figure into context. With about 4,000 banks and a similar number of credit unions in the United States alone, he said the total represents a broad international reach, particularly in Western financial systems.

Reports indicate that XRP supporters have previously linked Ripple’s NDA disclosures – which came to lithe during the SEC’s case against Ripple Labs – to the same banking partnerships. The latest data appears to go beyond what court documents suggested.

Price projections. Fate analysis

Riley also presented a speculative framework suggesting that XRP could be worth $625 per token if 20 billion XRP were responsible for moving all $12.5 trillion in annual flows.

The token currently costs approximately $1.37. This gap is huge, and analysts warn that the projection is based on uncertain assumptions about the token’s liquidity utilization and velocity.

The value of XRP under this model would depend less on market sentiment and more on how deeply banks actually utilize the token in real-world transactions.

This last part is a sticking point. The Ripple payment system does not always require XRP to work. Reports indicate that it is unclear how much of this $12.5 trillion actually flows through XRP compared to the broader Ripple infrastructure.

Having 13,000 banks in your network is one thing. It’s another thing to get them to route payments through a digital asset.

Schwartz denies the media hype

Schwartz was direct. He acknowledged that NDAs do involve confidentiality, but said the theories that arise about them go well beyond what the agreements actually cover.

According to Schwartz, the idea that something earth-shattering is waiting to be discovered misreads how these findings work in practice.

Featured image from Unsplash, chart from TradingView